


Skipping Beats & Flatlines

by dearxalchemist



Category: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Justice League - All Media Types, Teen Titans - All Media Types, Titans (Comics)
Genre: Blood, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Prompt Fill, Romance, established relationships - Freeform, mission
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 15:25:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17164475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearxalchemist/pseuds/dearxalchemist
Summary: “You say that every year.”  She calls him out, truth bleeding into the space between them.“Consider it an anniversary present.” He tries his hand at being charming, but he was never the charming one. His brother was. Dawn doesn't seem to mind though. She is charming enough for the both of them, soft along the edges with a mean right hook.Answered DC Prompts from Tumblr.





	1. Hank/Dawn - Anniversary

The city is alive and deafening. The sounds of it crawl over the old brick of the building, filling the roof with the threat of drowning out his words as she turns her head up. His lips are soft against the crown of her head, different from the callouses in his hands and the scars that cover him from years of pretending to be a costumed hero.

“When do we stop?” She asks with the usual bravado between them. She could whisper the words and he would still feel the sting of her impatience. She wants to slow to a stop, start something real. Eventually he has to decide what that means and when it will be, if it will be with him.

“Soon.”

“You say that every year.” She calls him out, truth bleeding into the space between them.

“Consider it an anniversary present.” He tries his hand at being charming, but he was never the charming one. His brother was.

“A present would be a change,” Dawn challenges hand moving for the empty bottle that is between her and the newly repaired dove sanctuary he built for her earlier in the year. Her fingers move over the sticky lip of the wine bottle and without warning she picks the bottle up and hurls it across the rooftop. It hits the edge of the building and shatters.

He frowns but doesn’t look at her, instead he stretches out on the blanket he’s laid out, watching the dark clouds roll overhead, “One more job.”


	2. Vic/Helena - Fear

When the gun goes off he doesn’t think twice about where the bullet goes as he disarms the hired fool. Vic’s gloved hand strikes the bend of his elbow and then knocks the gun to the ground before dragging the man forward and striking him hard in the gut with a well placed knee. It’s only when he hears her cough that he turns.

The warehouse is full of bodies, most unconscious, some moaning from pain but they’re all rendered to nothing, including Helena. Her cape is fanned out behind her, the center of her costume blooming in red. Another cough and something dark escapes her mouth and unceremoniously slides over the cut of her jaw.

“Helena,” He breathes her name beneath his faceless mask. Vic crosses the ground in a few heartbeats, knees slamming against the ground next to her where she gives him that ruthless smile of hers.

Teeth stained in blood, “H-hey Babydoll.”

Her voice is a strain of a whisper, one that becomes a strangled cry when he presses over her chest with both gloved hands, staunching what bleeding he can while she glances past him out of the warehouse glass windows. The light is on in the Gotham sky.

“Look at me,” He gives her the order but she’s fixated on that bat-shaped light against the clouds. Her magenta colored lipstick is so dark compared to the bright red blood that is marring her mouth.

Another cough strikes him to his core, he’s worried about where she’s hit, wondering if the bullet has struck a lung. He’s read plenty of recent articles how even if she’s taken to the hospital for repair the government will find a way to inject nanobots or something much more sinister into her. His mind begins it’s racing but she plants her hand atop of his on her chest, it’s a silent request to make him stop the conspiracy hunt.

“Scared?” Helena fights off a cough, swallowing hard.

He’s so scared he doesn’t have a word for the fear coursing in his veins.

“No.” He lies.


	3. John/Zee/Nick - Sacrifice

He takes a deep breath and exhales all at once, “ S’okay Zee.”

The smell of smoke still clings to him like a second skin, enough to make his nose twitch but Nick doesn’t say anything. Instead he holds tighter to Zatanna’s hand watching her make wide-eyes to the moronic man standing in the trench coat.

“It’s not just her you should reassure in this sacrifice.” 

Nick’s voice takes him back to his younger days, when magic still was still new against his fingertips and New York City had once been charming. It wasn’t charming anymore, it was filthy and full of the most corrupt souls he had ever laid his tired eyes upon.

“Going to miss me?” John’s mouth twitches up into what Zee would call a smirk, but then it’s over as soon as it begins and the dread wells up between them as the moon takes its position overhead, the bright white light of it fighting off the light pollution of the city. The concrete below him is marked in arcane symbols and the smell of copper stings his senses, the ritual is ready, the book is open and he’s standing in the center of it all like a bloody idiot.

“John,” Zatanna’s voice is small.

He doesn’t look at her just yet, instead he keeps his gaze on Nicolas before giving her one last shrug of his shoulders, “Next life luv, next life.”

**Author's Note:**

> All kinds of goodness can be found on my tumblr @ carolferriis


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